Jan 4, 2011

Q&A: Lord Tebbit praises helpful “warming”

Some important questions and no-nonsense answers:

Q: So who is this Lord Tebbit?

A: To fill some Americans in: we’ve all heard of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady. Well, Lord Norman Tebbit of Chingford was one of her “outspoken” senior cabinet ministers. Today he’s a conservative columnist with little time for “global warming” nightmares.

And, to be frank, Tebbit comes from tough stock. Some history: He and his wife survived the infamous 1984 Conservative Party conference bombing in Brighton, England. Years before, Tebbit had escaped out of a burning Mosquito aircraft. (Seriously.)

Q: Why isn’t Tebbit afraid of a warmer world?

A: Did I mention that Lord Tebbit is fireproof? To my understanding, he was also depicted as a skinhead biker, or Thatcher’s enforcer, in the TV series, Spitting Image, the satirical ITV puppet show.

But he’s a realist too. While chatting with a global warm-y suit, for example, Tebbit suggested, “that if Greenland could again grow wheat and barley as it did 1100 or 1200 years ago it might be quite helpful in feeding the hungry.” So if we believe the earth is warming (another debate) there’s surely a positive side.

Q: What fuels Tebbit’s skepticism?

A: He’s no history denier. As a former pilot in the RAF and British Overseas Airways, Tebbit understands weather/temperature extremes more than Hollywood starlets lounging in First Class. He states: “I was told that already the Russians were worried about the thawing of the perma frost. I asked if he [a distinguished warmist] had read about the recent discovery there of the remains of a baby mammoth beneath the ice which would seem to my untutored mind to show that in earlier times there must have been vegetation there since mammoths cannot feed on ice.”

Q: How is the Left responding to Tebbit-like arguments?

A: After throwing some facts to a warmist, Tebbit (who blogs at The Telegraph) recalls: “Sadly, he lost interest in the conversation, but perhaps one of my blog readers will be able to explain why restoring the world to temperatures it survived in the past would be an unmitigated disaster in the future.” In other words, Leftists don't do history, they just run from it, or change it, if they can. In 2000, British warmists pontificated about a snowless England, where snowmen-deprived children would have to live with snowless Januaries. (Seriously.)